QB depth charts, open position battles and USC’s looming question under center
It’s a ritual for South Carolina football.
Camp season is starting. Will Muschamp is asked about position battles and depth charts. It turns out, both those things are pretty similar to last year.
“We don’t have any depth chart,” Muschamp said. “I know everybody wants one, but right now everybody’s got to be ready in all three phases.”
How about position battles, say at quarterback when incumbent Ryan Hilinski will endeavor to hold off transfer Collin Hill?
“We’ve got an open competition, not just at quarterback but across the board,” Muschamp said. “And everybody’s got to earn their opportunity.”
This year might be a little different with the potential of a COVID-19 outbreak knocking out a chunk of players at one position, but often these sentiments are more platitude and attitude than anything else.
While every position is in theory open, coaches for the most part have months — if not years — of built-up understanding of their players and what they can do. They had two weeks of walkthroughs, countless meetings, player-run work where a veteran might be able to serve as eyes and ears for a coach who can’t be there.
That’s not to say someone can’t surprise to move ahead with a good camp. But if someone can do the job at this point, the staff already knows. Coaches want and need players to see every job as open if they work hard enough, but practices run with first and second teams, almost always organized in a way that looks much like a “depth chart.” So players usually know where they stand.
That brings us to the current questions behind center.
Hilinski was asked to do a lot in 2019, throwing behind a young offensive line with a consistently whittled-down receiving group. He took a lot of hits and protected the ball well, but despite a solid completion percentage (58.1%), his yards per attempt was the lowest among qualifying QBs in the SEC.
“Ryan’s working extremely hard,” Muschamp said. “I came up here Sunday afternoon, Ryan’s watching tape. He’s in with Mike [Bobo] Friday afternoon, watching tape. So Ryan’s extremely bright.”
While Hilinski was a much more decorated recruit, Hill came to USC from Colorado State with four seasons of experience in new offensive coordinator Mike Bobo’s offense. By all accounts, Hill came off a torn ACL looking good.
“It’s been really good for both players,” Muschamp said. “From a standpoint, number one, competition, because competition makes you all better. You got to walk in the building every day, whether it’s a meeting room, whether it’s a walkthrough, whether it’s a practice, and you got to bring your A game all the time. That promotes consistency.”
It’s hard to get a read on Hill statistically because his 18 career games straddle different parts of three Colorado State seasons: the early part of a year when he stepped in for a starter, the end of a lost 2018 campaign; and then the first 2 1/2 games last season. He played sparingly in some games, put up big numbers against FCS squads and got the most work on the Bobo team that had the most issues.
After the first round of walkthroughs, Muschamp spoke highly of Hill as a thrower, and in spring Bobo went as far as to say he could check with Hill about details of his own offense when they slipped the coach’s mind. Tight end Nick Muse on Thursday even suggested Hill might know the playbook better than Bobo. But when asked about Hill this week, Muschamp for the most part spoke about other players and about the competition.
That’s as a few reports have pointed to Hill being a strong contender for the starting job, possibly even being a favorite. Bobo said the pair are splitting reps evenly. Muse described Hilinski as “creeping up” as he got healthy, wording that could probably be read a few different ways (the senior tight end also talked about Hill’s “NFL arm”).
Coming out of the first practice, Hilinski told the school’s sports communications staff that his emphasis has been footwork, something Hill has been doing in Bobo’s system across four full seasons.
Muschamp said the battle between those two, Luke Doty and Jay Urich will have everything charted, from the throws to the reads to the adjustments in the run game. The longer runway means chances for more throws and less overuse of arms, but the moment the scheme, and perhaps position battles, come into focus will arrive rather quickly.
“After that first scrimmage, you take those first nine days, and you start kind of formulating who we need to continue to point to,” Muschamp said. “You start whittling down the number of reps and where you’re repping guys because those next two weeks.”
That won’t necessarily set a pecking order at QB, as last year’s backup battle went through a couple scrimmages to fully sort out. The only listed scrimmage in the official practice calendar is after 12 practices, but based on the previous year’s schedule there’s a good chance one will come a few practices before.
Camp, and especially those scrimmages, offer a chance for a player to make a difference in a tight battle. Everything clicking and a good run of practice can make a large-scale difference.
But there’s also a chance, maybe a good one, that things are somewhat close to set, with camp offering more of a chance to confirm what has already seemed clear than upending the feelings going in.
